Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Thanks to Don Leslie, and The Forns Family!

We had an amazing opportunity with this awesome Great Gray Owl, near Kingsville Ontario. These folks were very cool to hire me to tour them to the owl location, and assist with the various needs to create good images of this owl. I admit, I did not need to do a lot, with very skilled photographers, and such an awesome subject!

Fabs and Alfred Forns came all the way up here from Miami! My family joined me for this trip to Windsor for 2 nights in a downtown hotel, and dinner with Al and Fabs, and thanks to Al for being so generous! We had an excellent time with everyone, lots of fun stories, and I did
learn about a technique called the henway!

First, a quick comment from Don Leslie, and his images... thanks buddy!

" I had a recent opportunity to photograph the awesome bird with Ray. and I'd like to say a big thanks. As always, with Rays help and advice I managed to get some nice shots of this bird, looking forward to the next workshop Ray!"

"Both Alfred and I have known Ray Barlow on-line for many
years, but neverhad the pleasure of meeting in person.

The opportunity presented itself last week, when we saw
Ray’s image of theGreat Gray Owl in the Kingsville area.

We called Ray and he took time off his busy schedule
to be with us for two days, take us to the GGO and
also, to an amazing place where he conducts
workshops, the Canadian Raptor Conservancy.

As luck would have it, Ray decided to come meet us the same day we
arrived, and we took off for the Owl. We enjoyed her until last light
that afternoon and that was the last time we saw
her. If it had not been for Ray’s idea of taking us there on that
same day, we would have missed the owl completely.

Here are some pictures, some Al’s, some mine. A couple form the
Conservancy and a couple of Short Ear Owls form the
Kingsville area, where we were escorted
by Ray’s local friends.

It was a treat also to get to meet Daisy and Maria, wife
and daughter. He is a wonderful family man
and that is a joy to see.